Surprisingly, children's art can actually be good

This photography by Springdale Elementary fifth grader Brett Farr, titled “Squiggles,” is part of the “Eight Days A Week” photography exhibit currently on display at the Canyon Community Center in Springdale.(Photo: Brian Passey / The Spectrum & Daily News)Buy Photo

Don’t get me wrong; I think it’s great that kids get an early start in art. And I fully support and encourage the teaching of art to students of all ages. I just don’t go out of my way to check out exhibits of art by children.

Tuesday I went out of my way for just such an exhibit. And I’m glad I did it.

“8 Days A Week” is an exhibit of black and white photography by students from Springdale Elementary School, grades kindergarten through fifth. A flier for the exhibit, which is currently on display at the Canyon Community Center in Springdale through June 13, paraphrases The Beatles with this explanation for the exhibit name: “We ‘ain’t got nothing but love’ for the arts, eight days a week!”

The students were each given a camera and instructed to take one photograph every day for eight days in a row. Their subject was shadow and the resulting images were printed in black and white on metal plates.

With eight photographs per student, it provided plenty of options for creating the final exhibit of one photo per child. As expected, some of them still aren’t great. But there is a surprising amount of wonderful images in this collection.

What’s most inspiring is the creativity. Yes, many of the photographs simply focus on the shadows of their fellow students playing at recess. But even some of those are creative, using props like hula hoops to make the images more interesting.

Even more fascinating are the images where you can tell the child put some real effort into finding an original subject or creating one. Second grader Josemanuel Sanchez drew a flower with chalk on the pavement and then positioned a friend so it appeared as if her shadow was holding the flower. He titled the photograph “Sweet.”

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“Love on the Rocks,” a photograph by
Springdale Elementary fifth grader Maria Ramirez, is part of the “Eight Days A Week” photography exhibit at the Canyon Community Center in Springdale.(Photo: Brian Passey / The Spectrum & Daily News)

Each of the photos features an accompanying card with information about the photographer and the photographer’s explanation of how the photo was made. Many of them commented on how this project helped them to notice shadows more.

That might not seem like a big deal, but this project has taught many of these children to notice details and to appreciate artistic concepts in their day-to-day lives. That, to me, is a very big deal.

It also made me happy to see how some of the students spoke about these artistic concepts. One of my favorite photos was “Squiggles” by fifth grader Brett Farr. “I like patterns so I started finding right angles,” he wrote on the card accompanying “Squiggles,” which portrays a metal gate with swirling designs that casts mirror-image shadows on the concrete. It’s at once figurative and abstract.

“Squiggles” isn’t just a nice photo for a 12-year-old; it’s a nice photo, period. I wouldn’t think twice about hanging it on my wall next to original paintings by Royden Card and Arlene Braithwaite.

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“Eight Days A Week,” a photography exhibition by students from Springdale Elementary School, is on display at the Canyon Community Center in Springdale.(Photo: Brian Passey / The Spectrum & Daily News)

It was fun to see a photograph by first grader Ari West, the daughter of professional landscape photographer David J. West, who has a gallery in Springdale. In her photograph, “Imagine,” it appears that the shadow is taking a photo with an imaginary camera. On her information card she wrote: “I like this photo because there are so many different things that people see in the photo that are not really there.”

Similarly, third grader Evelyn King’s “Amazing Bike” photograph portrays something that isn’t even there, namely the bike. The shadows certainly appear to form a bike shape but I think they are actually just a collection of wind sculptures. Evelyn obviously has an artistic eye.

“I like this photo because ninjas are awesome.”

Giovani Beltran, 6-year-old photographer

Some of the photographs were simply entertaining. First grader Giovani Beltran’s “Ninja Kick” portrays a shadow practicing the martial arts. And this is what he wrote about it: “I like this photo because ninjas are awesome.”

In fact, the exhibit was so delightful it made that drive to Springdale through tourist traffic worth the hassle. You still have time to see the exhibit before it ends on June 13.

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The “Eight Days A Week” photography exhibit at the Canyon Community Center in Springdale features depictions of shadows by students from Springdale Elementary School.(Photo: Brian Passey / The Spectrum & Daily News)

The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. The Canyon Community Center is located at 126 Lion Boulevard, Springdale. Limited edition metal prints of the artwork are also available. Call 435-668-6830 to purchase a print or call 435-772-3279 for information about the exhibit.